StemCell Therapy

SOMERSET When the Westborough based Integrated Genetics asked if any of its employees wanted to relocate to New Jersey for six weeks to do COVID-19 testing, Andrew Lanneville volunteered to go. He said it is a small contribution he can make to help during the coronavirus pandemic, but if he is needed, he is happy he can help.

"I wanted to do it," Lanneville said. "My family and friends and girlfriend have been very supportive of it. My employer has been gracious, always checking in on me, and the people down here are very grateful."

Integrated Genetics is a subsidiary of LabCorp Specialty Training Group. Lanneville, a 2008 graduate of Somerset High School, is a molecular biologist for Integrated Genetics. He is testing DNA samples from the sickest people in hospitals to determine whether they have COVID-19 or not. Lanneville said there are a lot of talented people from different places in the country who are working in the lab.

"People are here because they want to do their part, do what they can," Lanneville said in a telephone interview with The Spectator last Monday. "If they want to run molecular assays and DNA testing, I'm happy to do it and other people are happy to do it, as well."

Lanneville said 10,000 tests per day for COVID-19 were being done in the district in New Jersey where he was working. Last week, he said they were beginning a second method of testing that will take some of the burden off the instrumentation they are using so that they could double the amount of tests they were doing. He said the DNA samples don't just come from New Jersey, but also from New York and other places in the country.

In an article in The New York Times on April 13, the paper reported that the backlog for coronavirus testing in New Jersey was getting worse. At that time, the Times reported that New Jersey had conducted 115,000 tests, about one for every 75 residents. The newspaper article reported that the tests are a critical tool in measuring the disease's spread and a requirement for certain forms of treatment, yet they remain hard to get, and many people are actively discouraged from trying to get the tests. The article said that initially, the backlog was happening because there was not enough test kits, but said now there are not enough swabs and nurses. New Jersey has the second highest caseload of coronavirus cases in the country.

Another article in The New York Times on April 15 reported that, "The American Clinical Laboratory Association, a trade group representing large diagnostic companies like LabCorp and Quest, has recently reported a dip in the daily testing volumes of its members. On Monday, its members processed 43,000 tests, the lowest number since March 20. At one point in early April, members were processing more than 100,000 a day."

Lanneville said the people in the lab do not see the people who the samples come from. He said they don't even know their names. Each sample has a bar code to identify it to protect the identity of the person.

Lanneville said there are two types of testing done to determine if people have COVID-19. One is an antibodies test, which his company does not do. He said that test attempts to detect changes in immnune cells that are preparing to fight the virus. Lanneville said the problem with antibodies testing is that someone may be infected with the virus, but their body may not have changed to fight it yet, so it is possible to get false negatives. The other test, which his company uses, is a DNA test that directly detects the virus. It is called Polymerase Chain Reaction testing, which has been around since 1985. Lanneville said the test is based on a preliminary chain reaction that involves the COVID-19 being copied millions of times, if it is present in the sample from someone's body. He said the test takes a few hours to do.

"It's a little more involved," Lanneville said of the PCR test. "It's a little more technical. It takes a little more time."

Lanneville said sometimes the instrumentation being used to run the tests breaks down because it is being used so much to run samples.

Lanneville said the DNA test is more accurate than the antibodies test. He said reagants, that are like the on ramps and off ramps, are added to the DNA highway. The enzyme polymerase is the car that goes on and off the highway that replicates the viral DNA millions of times to confirm it's present. Lanneville said a process is gone through that can replicate viral DNA many times over if it is in the sample from the person's body. He said if there was COVID-19 in the person's body, there will be millions of copies of it. If the person did not have COVID-19, he said no copies are produced.

"It' very robust," Lanneville said of the PCR test. "It is very obvious who is positive for this virus and who is negative for it."

When Lanneville was interviewed by The Spectator over the phone last Monday, he had been at the lab in New Jersey for three weeks. He said when he first got to the lab, 30 to 32 percent of samples were testing positive for COVID-19, but those numbers rose to 35 to 36 percent. Lanneville said he does not think the increase is alarming because he says physicians are getting a better eye for who has symptoms of COVID-19, the flu or allergies.

Lanneville has worked in clinical laboratories for the last six years. He runs experiments that involve many people. Lanneville has a lot of experience running genetics based tests to see if there is a risk of passing on cystic fibrosis or other types of conditions to family members. He said his clients want more information about how that could affect the health of a child that is going to be born.

Lanneville said the COVID-10 DNA-based testing is a little different than what he usually does in terms of the setting and the patients, but he said the technology, equipment and theories behind the test are the same. He has been working 70 hours a week in the lab in New Jersey.

At Somerset High School, where he took Advanced Placement classes, Lanneville was involved in tennis, soccer, cross country and Model United Nations. After graduating from Somerset High School, Lanneville studied biology and economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. While he is working, he is attending Boston College part-time to study business.

Asked about the risk of being infected with COVID-19 during the testing, Lanneville said, "At this point we are wearing surgical masks and protective face shields, along with gloves and labcoats. In addition, all COVID-19 samples (potentially positive or negative) are manipulated in a fume hood which has a negative pressure to essentially 'pull' the air out of the hood and also has a protective glass shield. There are some times when the samples are briefly exposed to the open air, when loading onto laboratory equipment, and there is no solution other than to minimize that time as much as possible."

"We have heard that another company performing testing in the area now has three technologists with COVID. There is some speculation that it may be due to the fact that the lab in question was manipulating samples in an open air environment. With all of the PPE needed at our disposal, I feel confident that risk of transmission is quite low. Honestly, I may have a higher likelihood of getting it from someone in the public areas of this building, outside of the lab, or the doorways of the hotel I'm staying at."

See more here:
SHS grad involved in COVID-19 testing - SouthCoastToday.com

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